(Admiral Giuseppe de Giorgi) The recent international days dedicated to the Environment and to the protection of the marine environment have brought to the attention of citizens and institutions one of the most serious ecological problems in our history: our seas are suffocating. Considering, in fact, that every year we produce more than 300 million tons of plastic, and that of these at least 8 millions end up in the sea, within the 2050, if we do not change lifestyle immediately, we will find ourselves in a world that will have more plastic than fish. The global use of plastic has, in fact, increased by 20 times in the last 50 years and is expected to double again in the next 20 years. In addition, always at the global level, only 14% of the plastic is collected for recycling. This is a much lower reuse rate than other materials such as paper (58%), iron and steel (at 90%). A global emergency that affects every aspect of our lives: plastic is in the water we drink and in the food we eat. Plastic is today considered one of the main threats to the health of the entire terrestrial globe. But also to ours, since we began to breathe and ingest in large quantities through the microplastics, contained in the dust, water and food we eat: in fact, instead of biodegrading, the plastic is photodegraphic, or disintegrates into pieces more and more small to the size of the polymers that compose it. "Plastic suffocates waterways, harms communities dependent on fishing and tourism, kills turtles and birds, whales and dolphins, makes its way into the most remote parts of the Earth and along the entire food chain. The 80% of marine pollution comes from the earth including eight million tons of plastic waste that every year end up in the sea ", underlined in a recent speech by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
It is therefore a real drama, which, fortunately, has started to push institutions, non-profit organizations, companies and private citizens to seriously tackle the problem. After banning the plastic bags in the 2015, the European Commission continues to pursue the dream of a Europe free of plastic waste: the way in which the disposable plastic, the same that in the world is about the 85% of marine litter. Finally, within 2025, Member States will have to collect 90% of single-use plastic drinks bottles, including through deposit-deposit systems. Each country will have to create awareness campaigns and the producers of these materials will have to clearly label their products and provide exhaustive explanations about their disposal. A first "large response" to prevent plastic from reaching the oceans has finally been given.
A problem that afflicts the whole world and does not even rule out our beautiful country. From recent investigations by Legambiente, through the report "Green Schooner", it was in fact revealed that "the 96% of floating waste in our seas is plastic. A density equal to 58 waste for every square kilometer of sea with 62 points in the Tyrrhenian Sea ". According to the "Beach Litter 2018" survey, plastic pollution obviously affects our homegrown beaches: on 78 monitored beaches, for a total of over 400 thousand square meters were found an average of 620 waste every 100 linear meters of beach . And among the most sought-after materials is plastic, with a percentage of 80% of the total. For example, the Ministry of the Environment reports that on a normal day of fishing, almost 50% of the catch is composed of waste, and of these almost 90% is plastic. In fact, the fishermen gather every day to collect large amounts of waste in their activity without knowing how to dispose of them. The experimental project "Clean Sea Life", a European initiative aimed at the disposal of "marine litter" (ie marine litter) in ports thanks to the collaboration of fishermen, was born to avoid that the large amount of waste collected from the networks ends rejected at sea thanks to a fruitful collaboration between fishermen, municipal administrations, Port Authorities, Port Authorities and disposal companies. To imagine the large numbers of this project, it is enough to know that, during the first night of experimentation, the vessels collected about one and a half tons of waste accumulated on the seabed: trawlers lost or abandoned, tires, bottles, bags , plastic sheeting and kitchenware, pipes, buoys, paint buckets and a considerable amount of rest, mussel farming retinas.
Meanwhile, always in Italy just in these days, the pilot project "Il Po d'Amare" started, the main Italian waterway contributes in fact to making the Adriatic sea the Italian sea with the greatest presence of waste. A project that foresees innovative techniques to intercept waste present in river water thanks to polyethylene barriers that intercept, select, trap and finally collect the floating plastic and other waste transported by the river. Small boats "Sea Hunter" collect the waste, mainly plastic, wooden materials and reeds, and take them to the shore where they are collected, selected and finally sent for recycling. A methodology that does not interfere with the flora and fauna of the river and, if it will bring good results, could in future be extended to all the major Italian rivers and replicated in other countries. We have to work individually and collectively to avoid this tragedy, each doing its own part, avoiding disposable plastic as much as possible and helping to clean up our planet as thousands of volunteers around the world have done to clean the shores of the planet during the Oceans Day. These are the daily actions, every day, however, and not just the 8 June, which can really make the difference: responsibility gestures that help save our sea and turn waste into a resource.
It is worth mentioning here that seas and oceans have an impact on our lives that goes far beyond what we can imagine: they regulate the climate, produce the majority of the oxygen we breathe, provide sustenance to millions of people every year and host an incredible biodiversity, endangered by human greed.
For millions of living beings the Ocean contains everything: it is a mission, the passion of a life, a job, adrenaline, survival.
For our Planet is life and its future.